Ex-teacher's aide seeks work release

But prosecutor says Brad Washburn doesn't deserve the privilege because he scoffed at part of sentence.

A judge will decide whether Brad Washburn will be allowed into Northampton… (KEVIN MINGORA, THE MORNING…)

May 27, 2011|By Riley Yates, OF THE MORNING CALL

Standing before a judge Friday and asking for prison work release, a disgraced Bangor teacher's aide who gave drugs to students said he wants to begin his transition back into society and into better things.

But on the phone from prison with a family member, a prosecutor said, Brad Washburn struck a different note, calling the 18 years of probation that is part of his sentence "a joke" that will "go away" after five years.

"To the extent that work release is a privilege, I don't think this defendant should be permitted the privilege of work release," Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius told Judge Leonard Zito.

Washburn, 30, has served nearly 80 days of a nine-to-24-month sentence for supplying marijuana, alcohol and strong prescription drugs to teens he knew at school.

His defense attorney, Mark Sigmon, is asking for Northampton County Prison work release, saying he's been a "model prisoner" who serves in a clerking position at the jail and has "at least one" job in contracting waiting for him outside.

But after Broscius spoke about the phone recordings from prison, Zito said he wanted to review them for himself, and he set a new hearing for June 24.

"I'd be very interested to know what the … mindset of this defendant is," Zito said.

In March, Washburn admitted to four counts of corrupting minors, a plea that came just a few months after one of the students he gave drugs to committed suicide. It was the second death to follow Washburn, who was with Gina Riso, a Bangor Area School District teacher, when she overdosed on heroin at his Bethlehem apartment in late 2009.

A dozen of Riso's family and friends attended Friday's hearing, wearing shirts that showed her picture and straining to hear the proceedings in a noisy Easton courtroom.

Washburn joined Bangor Area High School in 2008, first as an assistant wrestling coach and soon after as a substitute aide. Late in his employment, he transferred to Washington Elementary School before taking unpaid leave and eventually resigning in August 2009.

Washburn was charged in Northampton County last year after a county detective interviewed four former high school wrestlers.

Washburn sold and swapped drugs with students from November 2008 through May 2009, prosecutors said. He helped students cut classes so they could smoke marijuana with him, and had them over to his apartment to get high and drink.

The Northampton County charges were the latest against Washburn, who earlier received a one-month to one-year sentence for possessing drugs when authorities responded to the Dec. 10, 2009, overdose of Riso, who taught high school biology.

In advocating for work release, Sigmon said his client could be an "asset to himself and everyone else." Sigmon said Zito could tack strict requirements onto Washburn, with the "tremendously long" period of probation also serving as a check on his behavior.

"These are not teaching jobs," Sigmon said of Washburn's prospective employment. "They're not wrestling jobs. They're none of that."

At the prison, Washburn has been serving as population clerk, which keeps tabs on the prison population and where inmates are. Sigmon provided a letter to Zito from a deputy warden, Michael Bateman, about Washburn's service.

Washburn read from a statement he penned in which he said wants to ease his way back into a routine, and "knows he's capable of better things."

After the hearing broke, Washburn was led out of the courtroom by a deputy sheriff. Sitting just feet away as he passed was Riso's mother, Dawn Riso.